February 12, 2004

Chicago country: The year that wasn't

Awards week continues with the unveiling of the Nashville Scene's country music poll. Rodney Crowell captured best-album honors for "Fate's Right Hand" and the late Johnny Cash's cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" was named top single.

The local angle is that there is no local angle. Chicago musicians and labels alike were absent from the winners' lists with one exception: The Sundowners, a long-running bar band whose 1960s recordings were captured on last year's "Chicago Country Legends" (Bloodshot). That disc finished eighth in voting among reissues, a category topped by the Cash collection "Unearthed."